Nov 4 1964
From The Space Library
November 4-6: The AIAA/NASA Third Manned Space Flight Meeting was held in Houston, Tex. Franklin P. Dixon, NASA Director of Manned Planetary Mission Studies, said in a speech: "Our studies indicate that the next major phase in manned earth orbital operations should be a space station with a 6-9 man capacity. This would be specifically designed for long-duration earth orbital flights and would directly further the routine exploitation of near earth space for peaceful purposes. The studies on this concept have shown that the basic station module should have a usable total volume in the order of 8,000 cubic feet with continuous "floor' areas of not less than 300 square feet." (Text)
Dr. Edward C. Welsh, Executive Secretary and Acting Chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, spoke at the awards banquet: "There is a wonderful thing about the space business. It has a vitality and a deep sense of challenge, which most other activities do not have. If it is not a way of life, it is at least a way of looking at life. The space program is the program for the optimist, the person who is willing to look ahead with confidence, the individual who sees no limits to what can be done and no horizons to the scope of doing. One of the greatest benefits already obtained from the space program is its revitalizing effect upon our whole economy-our whole educational system-our whole attitude toward the future. Let us use all our power of per-suasion against any individual or any group who would slow down the pace of this program" Referring to statements that the military Possibilities of space have been "downgraded," Dr. Welsh said: "During the four-year period of 1957 through 1960, space expenditures for the DOD totaled $1 billion. On the other hand, during the last four years, that is 1961 through 1964, the DOD spent about $4.6 billion on its space responsibility. The fact is that the Department of Defense is annually spending about a billion and a half dollars in space research and development. This includes projects in navigation, communications, observation, detection, booster development, scientific instrumentation, command and control techniques, interception, and manned and unmanned space flight." He would make no prediction regarding next year's space budget, but suggested that "space expenditures over the coming years, even with occasional plateaus, would be characterized by an upward trend." Dr. Welsh confirmed the Russians were relying heavily upon unmanned Vostok spacecraft in their Cosmos program. He said the Vostoks had accumulated "more than 2500 orbits"; since the seven Soviet manned flights to date accounted for only 10% of this, the balance must have been achieved in the more than 20 Vostok flights from Tyuratam range at the 65° inclination. Unlike the Cosmos satellites, these unmanned Vostoks had been recovered after as much as two weeks in orbit. Dr. Welsh also disclosed that Soviet launching reliability was "comparable" to the 85% attained by U.S. in past three years. (Text; A&A, 11/64, 116; Dr. Edward C. Welsh)
Dr. Charles S. Sheldon, staff member of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, in a comparison of U.S. and Soviet space flights, said that 262 military and civilian launch vehicles had been launched by this country between 1957 and October of this year as opposed to at least 81 launched by the Russians. Of the total U.S. launch attempts, 192 were successful, and 231 payloads were put into earth orbit, eight were injected into escape trajectories, and 84 were listed as failures. (Text)
Brig. Gen. Joseph S. Bleymaier, AFSC Space Systems Div. deputy for manned systems, said that studies by Jet Propulsion Laboratory and by General Electric, under JPL contract, showed that payload capacities of both Surveyor and Mariner could be doubled if the Titan III, rather than the Atlas-Agena, were used to launch them. The GE study, he said, determined that the Voyager Mars soft-landing mission objectives could be accomplished more effectively if the lander and or-biter were launched as two separate Titan III payloads, rather than as a combined package atop a Saturn IB. (Av. Wk., 11/9/64, 27)
AIAA made the following awards: 1964 Astronautics Award to Walter C. Williams, vice president and general manager of the Manned Systems Div. of the Aerospace Corp. and until April 1964 NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight Operations, for "outstanding and continuing achievements in successful aerospace systems operations"; Octave Chanute Award to Fred J. Drinkwater and Robert C. Innis, USAF pilots at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif, for their work on the V/Stol and Stol aircraft; John Jeffries Award to Dr. Eugene Konecci of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, until Oct. 1964 NASA Director of Biotechnology and Human Research, for his contributions to life sciences; Robert M. Losey Award to Col. Robert C. Miller (USAF) , Kansas City Weather Bureau, for his work on turbulence. (Av. Wk., 11/16/64, 19; SC Roundup, 11/11/64, 1)
Joseph A. Walker, project pilot for NASA's Flight Research Center, described the first flight of the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle ( LLRV) . Walker said this was the first of several pilot familiarization and check-out flights. Simulated lunar missions were scheduled for early 1965. The first flight consisted of three separate take-offs and landings. Total free flight time was just under one min., with a maximum altitude of approximately 10 ft. He used only the jet engine for lift power and did not activate the lift rockets. All eight of the standard control rockets were operated briefly. The LLRV was equipped with a jet engine that could be automatically regulated to counterbalance five-sixths of the vehicle's weight to compensate for the gravitational difference between the moon and earth. This engine was also used to provide take-off power. During forth-coming checkout flights, two hydrogen-peroxide rocket motors, capable of delivering from 100 to 500 lbs. thrust each, would be used to regulate lift. The program, in support of Project Apollo, was designed to study the piloting and operational procedures involved during the final phases of a manned lunar landing and during the initial portion of the lunar take-off. (Fm Release 28-64)
Paper on launch vehicle engines by A. O. Tischler, Director of NASA OART Chemical Propulsion Div., and Leland F. Belew, Manager of MSFC Engine Program Office, covered current status of solid- and liquid-propellant rocket engines for Saturn and Titan launch vehicles. The authors reported that the F-1 engine represented "the largest thrust engine fired to date. Started in early 1959 the F-1 engine has been under development for six years. Five F-1's will be used in the first stage of the Saturn V vehicle to produce a take-off thrust of 7,500,000 pounds. . . . "Nominal firing duration is 150 seconds and we expect better than 15 times that life to be in the engine at qualification. . . . "[Design refinements to correct combustion-driven oscillations] have produced an engine which in the last five months has accumulated almost as much test time as in the previous five years.. . ." (Text)
Dr. George E. Mueller, NASA's Associate Administrator far Manned Space Flight, cited during a luncheon of the AIAA Third Manned Space Flight Meeting in Houston four important decisions made in the past ten years: "The first was in 1954 when as the result of the Von Neumann Committee's recommendations we began the ballistic missile program on a top-priority basis. . . . The second decision a year later was to undertake the Vanguard program as the second priority effort, completely separate from the ballistic missile program. . . . The third decision . . . was the passage of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. . . . The fourth major decision was President Kennedy's 1961 proposal to expand and accelerate United States space activity." Dr. Mueller said that there is no such thing as unmanned exploration of space. "As sensor, manipulator, evaluator, and investigator in space, as the scope and range of our activities continue to increase, the role of man assumes increasing importance. Our challenge is to capitalize on his presence in space." (Text)
USAF launched Thor-Agena D space booster from WTR with unidentified satellite payload. (HHN-48)
Minuteman ICBM was successfully fired from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., by a Strategic Air Command crew from Malmstrom AFB, Mont. The missile traveled 5,000 mi. down the Western Test Range. (M&R, 11/9/64, 10)
Capt. Theodore C Freeman (USAF) was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery, Va., with the entire astronaut team attending the services. (MSC Roundup, 11/11/64, 1)
Controller General Joseph Campbell said that the Federal Government could have saved $60 million by buying rather than leasing electronic data-processing systems for use on Government contracts. He recommended that a central management office be set up with authority to decide on the least expensive methods of obtaining data-processing equipment (NYT, 11/4/64)
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